


two birthdays

by trixicinkflair



Series: colder in the summertime [1]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Abandonment, Abuse, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Logic | Logan Sanders Are Siblings, Brothers, Bruises, CPS, Car Accidents, Child Abuse, Child Neglect, Childhood Trauma, Crying, Fear, Fear of Death, Foster Care, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Injury, M/M, Morality | Patton Sanders & Dr. Emile Picani Are Siblings, Police, Protective Logic | Logan Sanders, Protective Siblings, Series, Siblings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:40:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 1,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24061489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trixicinkflair/pseuds/trixicinkflair
Summary: -"I'm just tired, don't worry."Virgil tilted his head. "You look sad. Are you thinking about mom?"Logan shook his head, though his eyes were filling with tears. "Go back to bed, Vee."-part one of "colder in the summertime" // fic and series titles from "devil town" by cavetown // fic is properly capitalized
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Logic | Logan Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders/Morality | Patton Sanders
Series: colder in the summertime [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1735891
Comments: 5
Kudos: 59





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this used to be all one chapter, but i split it up so i could look through stuff easier. also, i just didn't like the format, it jumped around a lot and it was a lot easier to sift through when the chapters were shorter and there were more defined stopping points between time skips. hope y'all don't mind, i know there were a lot of you that read this before i switched everything around.
> 
> i re-wrote everything and was going to post at intervals and then realized i had been hitting "save as draft" instead of "post" so the posting dates are completely fucked, sorry about that kdsgnkejbg but i just now published this whole thing lmao
> 
> ~ink

When Logan was nine, he got a baby brother. When the child was four months old, and they were finally allowed to take him home from the hospital, Logan finally got to official meet him. it was strange not seeing him through the glass window of a hospital room.

He was so small, so helpless, curled against his mother and gently suckling on his thumb. Logan vowed then and there that he'd do whatever it took to protect him.

"He's so beautiful," their mother had whispered. "My little Virgil."

Logan had smiled down at the tiny little body and echoed the name softly. "Virgil."

It was perfect.


	2. Chapter 2

When Logan was eleven, (Virgil, now two years old, was tumbling around the house like a wild animal) their parents started slamming doors and stopped talking to each other for days at a time.

"Mama? Why is daddy so mad all the time?" he'd asked, cocking his head at her. She was sitting at the kitchen table, crying silently, staring at their wedding photo.

She'd smiled up at him, mascara streaked under her eyes. "He's just frustrated, baby, don't you worry."

"Do you love daddy anymore?"

She'd looked shocked. "Wh-what? Baby, what are you-"

"I don't think you and daddy love each other anymore," Logan had stated matter-of-factly. “But that’s okay, because he's not very nice.” He then gave her a quick, tight hug and promptly retreated to his room.

They didn't bring up hid father after that, but he caught her looking at him curiously more than once before his parents finally split.


	3. Chapter 3

"If mama and daddy get a diferst-"

"Divorce, Virgil," Logan corrected gently.

"Yea, that...what'dst that mean?" Virgil stumbled through the sentence, squinting when the words didn't come out quite right. He was learning fast for a four (almost five) year old.

"It means they won't live together anymore. And we'll visit dad on the weekends, maybe. You'll get two birthdays, though."

"That doesn't sound bad."

"It wouldn't be."

"But I'd miss daddy," Virgil said, picking up his rabbit. "Would we live with mama? I wanna live with both of them. Having to choose isn't fair."

Logan didn't know what to tell him.


	4. Chapter 4

When Logan was thirteen, his father left, finally fed up with having to "deal with two bratty kids he never wanted and a defiant bitch of a wife."

Two weeks later, his mother committed suicide in the hallway bathroom, slitting her wrists in the tub. Her funeral was the last time Logan cried for a long, long time.

They went to live with their mother's sister, who didn't know how to care for a child and dumped most of the responsibility on Logan so she could get drunk and stay out all night.

"Watch the brat for me, I don't want to have to deal with either of you," she'd snarled, the stench of alcohol and vomit thick in the air, enough to make Logan feel sick to his stomach.

At thirteen and a half years old, after their aunt had slapped Virgil for asking if he could hug her, Logan ran away for the first time, his little brother in tow.

The police picked them up within an hour, and after documenting the bruises on both children and evaluating the state of their (extremely intoxicated) aunt when she came to pick them up, they deemed her a risk to the children and they were dumped into the foster system.

Logan refused to be separated from Virgil, and most of the foster parents were willing to take in two kids at the same time, especially after seeing how well they got along. The realization that there wouldn't be constant fighting and bickering was definitely something that would have been a deal-breaker otherwise.

They were usually placed in at least semi-decent places, though some of the foster parents were very clear about how they were only in it for the money and wanted nothing to do with an of the kids.

They were only separated twice, and whenever Logan asked him about it once they were able to be reunited (they system, for all its flaws, didn't like to keep siblings apart) Virgil refused to talk about it.

He'd find out the truth years later, after Virgil had graduated from high school. They'd be cuddled under a blanket fort in their room, flashlights clutched tightly in their hands, waiting for the monsters so they could fight them off.

That's a story for later.


	5. Chapter 5

When Logan was fifteen, Virgil six, their current foster mother had gotten drunk and started screaming at Virgil before pushing him down a flight of stairs. Nothing was broken, thank the stars, and the only injury was a purple bruise on his cheek where he'd struck the wall.

Logan didn't even consider staying in the house even a single night longer, and left as soon as he could get out the window with his little brother tucked securely against his chest.

The next foster parent sent them back because Logan was "too loud" and he "couldn't handle the noise." Logan was stupefied as to how he'd made too much notice, but shrugged it off.

After all, Logan knew he annoyed people rambling under his breath as he read. Though seeing as how he'd barely left his room unless it was to read, he was drawing a blank on the supposed noise problem.

She never bothered reporting either of them when they took off, and after a month, the two got pretty good at dodging cops.

"Do you remember how, when we were little, mom used to tell us bedtime stories?" Logan asked one night as they sat by a flickering candle.

Virgil shook his head. "No."

"Well...do you want to hear one of her stories?"

Virgil nodded eagerly. Having only been about four or five when their mother...died, Virgil didn't remember her very well, and hung onto Logan's every word when he told him stories about her.

When she'd been happier, when she and their father had gotten along. When their mother used to smile without looking like something had taped her face into a sad imitation of a happier expression.

Logan had watched their family fall apart day by day, and he wasn't about to let anything happen to the one thread of happiness he was still able to cling to; Virgil meant the world to him.

"Lo? More story?" Virgil asked, tugging on his sleeve, and he was jolted back into the present, shaking his head to clear it.

"Right. Okay, here's one you might like. Once upon a time, in a kingdom not far from here, there lived a young prince. His name was Virgil."

Virgil giggled. "That's my name too!"

Logan bopped him lightly on the nose. "That's right, that _is_ your name."

Virgil sat through the rest of the story quietly, eyes bright, leaning forward to catch Logan's every word. When Logan finally drew the tale to a close, Virgil hummed. “Good story.”

”Thank you, Virgil. Go to sleep, now. It's late, and you need your rest so you’ll get big and strong.”

”Just like daddy used to be!” Virgil told him with a seriousness beyond his years, curling up under his tattered blanket.

Logan didn't have the heart to tell him how warped his vision of strength was.


	6. Chapter 6

"Lo?"

"Yes, Virgil?"

"Do you think I could be a prince?" the eight year old asked, pursing his lips.

 _You could have been a prince every single Halloween if things had been different._ The thought leapt, unbidden, into Logan's mind, and he shoved it away before he could dwell on it.

"Do you want to be a prince?" he asked instead.

Virgil nodded vigorously, and Logan got to his feet. "Alright, then, in that case, we'll make you into a prince!" Logan declared, rifling through his bad and pulling out an old white t-shirt and a red thing that might have once been a scarf.

“Come here,” he said, gesturing his brother over. Virgil scampered happily over and plopped down on the ground, grinning widely.

Pulling Virgil’s ratty grey shirt over his head, he slipped him into the white shirt, which was big enough that it hung to his mid thigh. Logan fastened the red scarf like a sash, draped across his shoulders, and wrapped the excess around his waist like a belt, tying it off under a scrap to hide the knot.

”There we go. Just like a real prince.”

Virgil cheered, and Logan's heart ached.

He turned away before his little brother noticed he was crying.


	7. Chapter 7

“Logan? You okay?”

"I'm just tired, don't worry."

Virgil tilted his head. "You look sad. Are you thinking about mom?"

Logan shook his head, though his eyes were filling with tears. "Go back to bed, Vee."

”But-“

”Virgil. Go back to bed. I mean it.”

Virgil went quiet, and when Logan glanced back at him, he’d laid back down, back to Logan. His shoulders were shaking.

”Virge....”

”Go to bed,” Virgil snapped, voice choked with tears. “That’s what you wanted me to do. I’m doing it.”

Logan, at a loss, just curled up to his brother’s side and wrapped his arms around him, holding him while his small body shook with sobs.

Eventually, the boy fell asleep.

Logan stared down at his brother’s sleeping form. ”I’m so sorry you have to live like this, Vee. You deserve so much more than this. Someday we’ll find a place. If I could get a job, then I could get us actual food, and we could have a proper roof, and-“

“You do plenty, Logan,” Virgil huffed, still half asleep. “I’m twelve years old, I’ll be old enough to find a job too.”

”Thirteen isn’t a legal-“

“There’ll be someone,” Virgil interrupted, shifting around to face him as he rubbed sleep from his eyes

"Absolutely not, Virge. I won’t have you working in shitty conditions just because we’re struggling. I’ll find some way to support us.”

"We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> not really sure where this is going to go, but i'm thinking that the next chapter might be a while out. because i do have other chapters for this planned, but i don't know how long it might be until i actually get any of that stuff in progress. and it'll be a while before i have time to finish up any other installments for this series. your patience is appreciated. kudos and comments fuel me, and as always, i hope you enjoy, and i'll see you all in the next chapter.
> 
> ~ink

“Logan?”

"Yeah, Vee?”

"Why was mom always so sad?”

Logan sighed. “She wasn’t. You just didn’t know her when she was happy. She used to have the most beautiful smile.”

”What was dad like? I remember he used to spin me in the living room, and he’d tell me funny jokes while he worked, but...what was he really like?”

Logan sighed. “You’re not ready for that conversation, Virge. Trust me.”

”I wanna know!” Virgil whined.

”Virgil, enough. I’ll tell you when you’re older.”

”I _am_ older! I’m fourteen!”

Logan glanced across the street. “Okay, I’ll tell you when you’re fifteen, then.”

Virgil narrowed his eyes at him. “You pinky promise me?”

Logan sighed again, but stuck his pinky out. “Pinky promise.”

Virgil smiled as they linked their pinkies. “Yay.” Then he glanced up, gasping as he saw the bike displayed in a shop window across the street. “Lo, look!”

He let go of Logan’s hand, running out into the street.

”Virgil, no!” Logan cried, taking off after him.

The next few moments happened so fast that Logan barely registered the events.

The screech of tires on pavement, a high, terrified cry, and then Logan's world froze.

There was a small body on the pavement, motionless, partially covered by a small black jacket. 

Logan started to scream.


End file.
